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AboutRichard Kylie Cowie (born 19 January 1979, Bow, East London, England), better known by his stage name Wiley is a British music producer and MC who was one of the original founders of the Roll Deep Crew. Wiley has been active in the fields of Jungle, Drum & Bass and UK Garage music, but is best known for being the major mover in the creation of Grime.

Wiley's earliest recordings date back to 1998, when he featured on pirate radio rapping over Jungle beats.

In 2000, Wiley joined with the "The Ladies Hit Squad" UK Garage crew with school friends DJ Target and MC Maxwell D around 2000. They achieved some success on the UKG scene but then decided to combine with rival crew Pay As U Go to become a "super crew" containing the Ladies Hit Squad members plus DJ Slimzee and MC's Major Ace and Plague. God's Gift, Flow Dan and Riko joined soon after. In 2002 the collective achieved a top 40 hit "Champagne Dance"

Soon after the crew disintegrated due to the power of the individual members who had differing ideas of the direction the crew should take. Wiley went on to form the Roll Deep collective. Which included Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder as MC's. They were making music that was different from UK Garage. For a while there was not even a name for it. The label "grime" was the one that stuck.

From 2001, Wiley produced a slew of instrumental "riddims" singles on his WileyKat Record label. The most famous ones are the "Avalanche", "Blizzard", "Eskimo" and "Ice Rink". This led to his signing a record deal with XL Recordings.

Wiley is a member of the following crews:

Roll Deep
Boy Better Know
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Eskibeat

Wiley was a member of the following crews:
Pay As You Go Cartel

In 2004, Wiley released an album, Treddin' on Thin Ice on XL Recordings. Singles from the album include, "Wot Do U Call It ?" a record questioning what name should be given to his music and "Pies".

During this period, Wiley occasionally referred to his music as "Eski", short for 'Eskibeat' - the name he initially gave to grime. Also, Wiley released mixtapes under the name "Eskiboy". He explained his choice of name for his music and the continuing theme in his song and album titles such as Treddin' on Thin Ice, partly because he likes the wintertime, but mainly meaning cold in spirit. Wiley was quoted in conjunction with his "cold" theme: "Sometimes I just feel cold hearted. I felt cold at that time, towards my family, towards everyone. That's why I used those names" ." Many of Wiley's early vinyl releases, such as 'Eskimo', were released under the alias "Wiley Kat", this name was derived from a character in the cartoon Thundercats. However the 'Kat' is never officially used by Wiley anymore, only mentioned loosely in some of his songs.

In 2007, Wiley released Playtime is Over on Big Dada Records, an album which followed his eskibeat roots. Wiley's Eskibeat and solo material is managed by the Perpetuity Music Group.

In 2008, Wiley found chart success with the hit single "Wearing My Rolex". The instrumentation (such as the slower, house style beat and lack of sub bass) caused some unrest within the Grime scene as Wiley had previously vowed that he would never change his origin to break into the mainstream.

Wiley also released an album, See Clear Now, in October 2008 which included hits "Wearing My Rolex", "Cash In My Pocket" and "Summertime". This album took Wiley in a mainstream direction. Despite its success, Wiley has disowned the album as he was "very angry" with the label, Asylum, about the production and also unhappy about his then management. Wiley left the label and has gone on to make another album, Race Against Time. This was released eight months after his previous album in June 2009, on Eskibeat Recordings where he had much more creative control. The album includes the 2009 hit "Too Many Man", featuring Boy Better Know.

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Wiley - Music Is Calling Me
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Wiley - Badman
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Wiley - Customs
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Wiley - Your Intuition
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Wiley - Talk About Life
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Wiley - One Hit Wonder
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Wiley - Remember Me
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Wiley - Slippin'
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Wiley - Tell Ya For Free
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